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Eilserus
Master of Realmslore
USA
1446 Posts |
 Posted - 25 Apr 2012 : 20:13:33
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So I decided to break with my anti-4E stance and buy the Halls of Undermountain. And I have to say, the only thing I was disappointed in was the book being only 96 pages. Spoilers ahead so be warned. ;)
There's some good information in it. The description of the Yawning Portal reminds me of that old Dragon Magazine, report from Undermountain article that detailed out activities and NPCs and events going on within the halls.
The authors wrote a few good adventures and there's some things described that are really cool. The lizardman ritual where they feed a snake the size of a worm to you and it eventually busts out of your gut in a snake swarm is well disgusting, but totally awesome bad guy material to use.
The format of the book is done up really nice and in a way that can make a DM happy. I could easily and will transplant some of this into my 3.75 Pathfinder rules once I figure a logical way to get the PC's to Undermountain. The 4E stat-blocks are mostly gone from the adventure pages, referenced in an appendix instead if they aren't in the Monster Vault and making more room for adventure info such as room description etc.
There's also a section in the book that details with some of the more infamous locations from the old 2E boxed set. Selvetarm's altar, the Hall of Sleeping Kings, and Whitehelm's Tomb are a few included. There's also a small section about Downshadow. And who remembers Muragh, that talking skull on the table? He's here too!
I plowed through the book in one sitting, skimming along and when done I wanted more. Maybe it's just my love of the dungeon but this book hooked me more than the Neverwinter Campaign Guide did.
I do think the sourcebook should have had a better page count, maybe another 50 pages or so to put us at the 150 mark. Naturally, even more would be better, like Expedition of Undermountain was a good 220 or so pages. I'm not sure why the page count was low, but I'd guess it's because of the maps included. There's a really nice map of the entire first level of the halls (unkeyed at that) and on the reverse of that, a really nice map of the first floor of the Yawning Portal. The book holds a few DM maps of the first level that are keyed...I like this!
There's also some tactical maps in the back of the book, which I haven't detached yet. I don't have an army of mini's to really make use of these things and generally just sketch a room with player and foe placement if its a wild battle. They are nice though, with lots of dungeon dressing in them.
I'm not sure if designers will read this, but this would be a nice way to give some good detail to the levels of Undermountain. Personally, I'd buy level 2, 3, 4, etc etc in this type of format. On the other hand, I'd also flat out buy a thick tome (think Neverwinter CG) detailing the levels in this style, but not if it meant sacrificing us seeing something new like Shoonach. The return of actual maps and not just tactical battlemaps is a huge plus and something I hope we see more of.
I'm the last guy on the planet who's going to cheerlead for 4E, but this is a pretty good book to have. I've read before that if we want to support these types of changes Wizards is doing, we should do it with our wallet, it's the nature of the beast. Halls of Undermountain gave me that 2E sourcebook vibe and I'm definitely behind that. So the next time your at Barnes and Noble or your hobby shop, pick it up and flip through the pages. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.
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Halls of Undermountain Review
